Alcohol Labelling Has Little Impact On Purchasing Habits

According to the latest Consumer Insights report from Empathy Research, the role of alcohol content labelling appears to have a limited impact on the purchase and consumption behaviour of the Irish adult population.

The survey found that while many feel that alcohol content of particular products, for the most part, clearly laid out, the impact on purchase and consumption behaviour is somewhat limited.

Interestingly, it is those in the 18-24 age group who appear to be most impacted by alcohol content labelling with high levels claiming they will check this before purchasing, particularly when purchasing spirits, with a similar proportion adopting the same approach when purchasing wine.

Overall, there is high claimed understanding of what a unit of alcohol means, with almost 9 in 10 of all adults stating this to be the case. Most likely to be well versed when it comes to the definition of a unit of alcohol, are those aged 35-54, where awareness is almost universal whereas only three quarters of those aged 18-24 are aware of the meaning.

In spite of widespread understanding of what exactly a unit of alcohol is, a low percentage of respondents monitor their unit of alcohol consumption. Only 10% of alcohol drinkers claim to always monitor their consumption, with only 25% claim to frequently monitor their units. The majority of drinkers fall into the rarely (38%) or never (27%) brackets.

Females are almost twice as likely as males to be always monitoring the number of units they are consuming. In fact, three quarters of all males who drink alcohol claim to never or rarely monitor the number of units of alcohol they consume.

When it comes to checking the alcohol content of different types of alcohol before purchase, wine drinkers are most likely (28%) to always check the alcohol content before purchase. They are followed closely by 25% of spirit drinkers and only 15% of beer drinkers.